Big surprise to me: Over the past two years I have bought about 60 16 X 16 panels from various vendors , all sold as WS2812b and , to the naked eye they all looked identical........Looked like they came from the same manufacture and, I thought, simply distributed by the different vendors.
Nope!
The World Semi 'WS2812b' seems to have become a generic term for addressable chips and in fact, the chips used are often SK6812 and perhaps others
Using a microscope I have found three different chips in the panels I have bought.

I started researching yesterday when I had a flicker problem and , in one case a color difference in an older panel.

Here are some informative links, in sequence of discovery, for those of you that are interested in this:

https://talk.vanhack.ca/t/psa-ws2812b-leds-may-not-be-what-you-think-they-are/5626
Check the videos too.

https://hackaday.com/2017/01/25/ws2812b-led-clones-work-better-than-originals/

https://talk.vanhack.ca/t/psa-ws2812b-leds-may-not-be-what-you-think-they-are/5626

https://cpldcpu.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/the-sk6812-another-intelligent-rgb-led/

World Semi WS28 chips......There are a few
https://www.tme.eu/en/katalog/smd-colour-leds_113363/p,worldsemi_1114/
http://www.world-semi.com/solution/list-4-1.html#111

Clones.....?
http://www.addressable-led.com/Products/addressable-led-chip.html


Any insights would be really welcomed!

John

 

Any insights or comments?